They might be the current world champions, but the Australian Netball Diamonds are training harder than ever.

With the Commonwealth Games fast approaching, test matches are heating up and the girls are getting ready to take home the gold. Captain Sharelle McMahon talks training, team bonding and beating the Silver Ferns.

How are you feeling in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games?

Really good actually! It\'s always a nice feeling to come to the end of a championship season. We\'ve got three matches against New Zealand coming up in the Test series, and now we\'ve got a really great team of 15 to play in those games. So weve put all of our rivalries aside to come together as a team, and everyone is really excited about getting out there in the Test, and later on in the Commonwealth Games.

What\'s the training schedule like?
Basically, the two series that we\'ve got coming up are our preparation for
the Games. Sometimes we have a chance to head into camp in the lead up to that, but we\'ve got a really reduced preparation time this season. So we pretty much train every day. The team stays together at a hotel and we\'ll train two or three times a day- but occasionally they\'ll give us the afternoon off, which is nice!

How do you stay motivated when the training gets so intense? Motivation is no problem at all. There is competition within our group, not only for positions on the team but also on court, so that\'s a motivating factor all the way along. And if you can\'t get yourself motivated to play in the Commonwealth Games, then youâ\'ve probably got bigger problems.

As captain, do you feel that there\'s any extra pressure on you?

There is some extra responsibility that goes along with it. As captain, people will turn to you, both on and off the court, but more than pressure it\'s just a bit of added responsibility to the team, and to the sport.

Is there much focus on building team culture? I imagine trust and loyalty would be pretty important...

It\'s incredibly important. We all come together from different teams and
different states, so it\'s important that we build up that trust with one another.
We do a lot of work to make sure we really know each other, so we have that
sort of support, which does make the performance easier. It\'s also about how you enjoy the time you spend with the team. We do spend a lot of time together. We room together, we basically eat every meal together, and we train a couple of times a day together, so it is really important that we get along.
We hear a lot about some rivalry with the New Zealand Silver Ferns. How much of that is real?

There\'s definitely a huge rivalry with the Silver Ferns! I\'ve played in three World Championships and three Commonwealth Games so far, and each time, we\'ve played against the Silver Ferns. The rivalry is always there, and it continues whether it\'s a major tournament or not. In the competition we have, there\'s never very much separating the two teams, and we\'re both probably doing everything we possibly can to beat each other.

What are you looking forward to most about the Commonwealth Games?

There are so many things! The experience of being at the Commonwealth Games is one that you don\'t get anywhere else. In other competitions, you\'re just representing the Australian netball team. But at the Commonwealth Games, you\'re part of a much bigger team, so that\'s really exciting.
Having so much support from the other athletes and getting to know all of them is really amazing as well. So apart from obviously the competition and trying to win the gold medals, sharing the experience with the other athletes, and going along to their events and supporting them, is probably what I\'m looking forward to most.

What are your hopes for the team for the next few years?

It\'s a big couple of years coming up. There\'s the Commonwealth Games, obviously, and then the world championships halfway through next
year. So our goal, as it always is, is to win both of those major tournaments, and those are really quite realistic goals for us to have I think. We\'ve got a really great team together that has a nice mix of experienced players who have been in major tournaments before, and also some really great younger players who are fairly new to the team. So for us, it\'s about pulling that together and achieving as best as we can over the next few years.

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